Priscilla Presley

Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (born Priscilla Ann Wagner on May 24, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American model, author and actress. She is the ex-wife of rock 'n' roll singer and musician Elvis Presley and mother of singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley. Their marriage took place on May 1, 1967.

In Elvis and Me, Beaulieu recounted how Elvis would stay up all night and sleep most of the day. If he wanted to go out, he would rent out the venue and invite friends, family and fans, or arrange with store owners to shop after hours when the store was closed. She also talked about the prescription sleeping pills that were present from the very first night she spent with him and how their usage and variety escalated dramatically during the years they were together.

A completely different view of Priscilla's life, painting her in a rather negative light and describing her as a "wild child" and "sexpot", can be found in Suzanne Finstad's book, Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (1997), which is based on accounts of several people who knew Elvis and Priscilla well, among them many friends from Priscilla's childhood and adolescence, Elvis's stepbrother Rick Stanley, Priscilla's boyfriend Mike Edwards, Elvis's ex-girlfriends and the wives of the Memphis Mafia men. The author writes that Priscilla promised sexual favors in exchange for meeting Elvis to Currie Grant, a married, 27-year-old man who knew the singer, that she and Elvis slept together on their second date and that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night. The book also claims that her marriage was part of a mastermind for fame hatched by Priscilla and her mother and that she never loved Elvis. Finstad takes many quotes that Priscilla has made and calls them a web of lies that she has spun. Priscilla launched a lawsuit against Currie Grant for his claims in the book and won.

Romantically, Priscilla has had a number of serious relationships since her divorce from Elvis in 1973. Immediately afterwards, she lived with karate instructor Mike Stone. She then had a seven-year live-in relationship with bisexual model Mike Edwards, until he began developing feelings for the teenage Lisa Marie. Edwards recounts the tale of their relationship in his book Priscilla, Elvis, and Me. Priscilla's longest relationship has been with Italian screenwriter-director Marco Garibaldi, with whom she lived for 22 years. Their son, Navarone, was born on March 1, 1987. The two separated in April 2006. She is now rumoured to be dating British TV executive Nigel Lythgoe.

Priscilla and her daughter had a tempestuous relationship when Lisa was a teenager, but theirs has since matured into a smoother, more understanding mother-daughter relationship. Lisa Marie even imitated Priscilla by marrying not the King of Rock 'n' Roll but the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Lisa Marie herself now has a daughter (Priscilla's granddaughter), Riley Keough, who models for John Galliano, and Benjamin Keough (Priscilla's grandson).

Priscilla and Lisa Marie are both Scientologists, introduced to the religion in 1979 by John Travolta. Of the group, Priscilla said in 1996, "You get answers, and that's very different from other religions. It's gotten me back to basics."